So It Goes
by prongsies.lady
Summary: Ever read a newspaper editorial? Come here for my opinions on life, boys, and everything else. Updated when the moment strikes
1. Parents

Remind me again why parents think they're so necessary. We could all survive without them. Give us an hour or so to realize that, hey, having nothing to do and no responsibility is that fun, and we'll start to create responsibilities for ourselves. But the hovering that comes through the generations of parents getting more and more paranoid belies the fact that kids can function on their own. Now, I'm not talking kids as in, the 5-10 age group. Yeah, they know what's going on, and what they have to do, but that means nothing to the parents. I'm talking the group 10 and up, who get more and more pressure as the years, no, days, go by to be perfect, to beat out this kid and that kid for this college or that job. Is that really the environment that we want to create?

We're just teaching kids that being competitive is what life is all about. But what's that mantra I get over and over again after that inevitable fight with the siblings? "Not everything's a competition". Hate to break it too you, Mom and Dad, but that's the way that you raised us. Learn to accept what you've created with the things that you instilled from birth, and let them grow into what THEY want. Not what you wished you could have been and are now pushing them to become. I'm not going to be the person I am right now for the rest of my life. Why do you think It's called 'going away to college'? There's a reason for that. We need to leave you hovering noradic people with nothing better to do in life than to dictate what your kids become. This person is going to be at that party? Oh, well, I don't like their morals, so guess who's staying home Saturday night? Yup, that's me, and let me tell you, It's sure as hell not by choice.

But wait! There's a group getting together at so-and-so's house. Small gathering, yea, just the close group. But no, the parents aren't going to be home. Oops, that comment just told the parent's that you're lying, whether you're telling the truth or not. Thank you, Police Department and Drug Facilities, for making sure that parent's think that every kid over the age of 13 will lie to go out. Some of us still have morals, you know! The kids who go out and get high every weekend, hell, every night, and sometimes during the day? Those are the kids who resent things, are ticked off at parents perpetually, and who just want to rebel the bad way. Well, you want to keep drugs out of high school? I'll tell you the best method. STOP TELLING PARENTS THAT THEIR KID IS A LYING, THEIVING, DRUG ADDICT!! Because some of us wouldn't touch that for the world. Lot's of people wouldn't touch that for the world. But then you go and cause strife within the home, and fighting matches resume, and all of a sudden that kids out smoking on the street corner. Because.. wait for it…. They think that they're parents don't give a damn, because all they do is interrogate them over innocent little things. Just because all you see is that bad kids, doesn't mean that all you see is all there is.

That's my scope on things today! Laurie Spraw.

"So It goes" Kurt Vonnegut.


	2. Black Friday

Black Friday 

Thursday is Thanksgiving. That means lots of food, late nights with who ever you eat with, and cleanup-lots and lots of cleanup. So the most logical thing to do on Friday would be to sleep-late, really really late, like any sensible person (Especially those of us between the ages of 13-18)

WRONG

Friday after Thanksgiving is devoted to officially starting the Christmas- oops, sorry, HOLDAY- season. My Mom lets me play those stupid Christmas Carols without biting my head off, (we all play them just to annoy, of course,) the holiday lights spring up all over the neighborhood, and the all important shopping starts. Dig out those lists, kids, the parents are off to the mall for… drumroll please…….

BLACK FRIDAY.

We know it's going to be hell, we know that everyone in creation is going to be out there doing the same thing that we are, yet we go and do it anyway. Is it a lack of common sense in this generation, or just a pressing need to say that you were there on Black Friday? If you can take off Friday to go shopping, you can just as easily take off Tuesday, or Thursday, or how about this…. Shop in your spare time like everybody else!

We all want to sleep after a late night out, right? So why do we get up at 3 to be at that store that opens at 4? Of course- those ads told us that certain items that we all just HAVE to have will be on sale then. At FOUR in the MORNING.

Sorry guys, I just fell asleep.

I have an idea. It's called CyberMonday. Lets all go on Ebay and Amazon and to all our shopping online, forget the time and effort generally put into gifts, I'll stay in one spot like the couch potato this lifestyle has turned me into and do all the shopping that way.

Yup, I said it. This lifestyle's turned me into a couch potato. I spend massive amount of time doing seemingly useless things on the computer, curl up the same way in the same chair in my living room to watch the same shows every week.

Except I am the elite, the few, the proud, who actually know how to do the dying art. It's called regular exercise. Frequent movement.

What'd you have to say to that, Radioshack?

Laurie.

"So it goes," 11-24-07


	3. Worrying

So I think I've discovered my chosen career. A Medieval History major, and then either artifact preservation or museum curator.

Then I ask around, try to find out what people would say if I actually followed that path.

And the guy that I look to for support in everything tells me it's a stupid career and it would never get off the ground.

So it's back to square one. And that got me thinking. Why does life have to be so gosh-darn oppressive? No, not hard, I know that's what you were looking for as the next word. Oppressive.

My handy-dandy little dictionary sitting here describes oppressive as " exerting a worrying, troubling, or burdensome pressure on somebody".

WOW! That's life exactly. Who hasn't worried about what they're going to do next, what the rest of their life is going to be like, will they ever find the person that they love (cause you know they're out there you just can't seem to find them), are you going to live past 80, will you be happy in your career….

That's a long list, and it's not even done yet. So why do we worry?

I totally understand the whole parent's worrying thing, after all, you put that much time and money into a kid, you want them to live past 16. But why do kids worry? What on earth to we have to worry about?

It's not like we have kids to worry about. At least, I hope not. Although it's possible, that's your choice. But that's not the average teenager.

We worry because of the oppressive environment we've created. It's when you get back that test, and you got a below good grade- in my house, that's anything under an 80. Hell, sometimes it's even an 80! So you spend the rest of the day worrying about what kind of lecture you're going to get when you go home. (Psstt, mom, some kids would kill for that grade, just so you know.)

Or, you can even worry before you get the test back! Before you take the test! While you take the test! Let's live in a perpetual state of worry! Because what grade I get on my Algebra 2 quiz, that is definitely going to decide my future.

I'm just kidding. It's not. Look, you started worrying again, didn't you? You were all ready to run off and crack open the books.

I've got a great idea.

What if we each spent one week, One week without worrying, without stressing about anything? Be carefree. Just do what you have to do, and see how that week goes for you. Are you more relaxed? Less tired? More motivated to do something because you are motivating yourself, not being pushed by parents? Be sure to let me know. My week's not going to come for a while.

Oh, and I suggest that you let your parents and friends know about this little endeavor. That could get messy…

So it goes, guys, so it goes.

Laurie.


End file.
